“I’m all about fashion, food, and entertaining,” said designer Lela Rose this morning at Café Altro Paradiso in New York’s Soho, where she staged her salon-style show for Spring. “And matching your dress to your cocktail!” Actually, she didn’t say that in the restaurant, exactly—she was speaking from her makeshift backstage: a Ducati and Triumph dealership. Rose let out a laugh, appreciating the humor of her sherbet-hued frocks surrounded by European motorcycle-culture machismo.

When those pieces did make their turns, they made the observer want to fast-forward through winter. Rose served rosé to accompany, say, a flapping grosgrain pencil dress with flat-ribbon shoulder straps. It was one of her stronger looks; a pitch-perfect echo of and complement to the merriment of sunny-day luncheons. Same goes for the designer’s tennis T-shirt and banded skirt combo; it was prep but also cool.

Rose is not in the practice of design adventurism. She runs a solid business that sells wearable clothes. Some pieces today, like a pair of poppy-print pants, had a bit of a challenging fit (in the trousers’ case, a high waist with a straight and pajamalike leg). Rose’s lean and sporty dresses are her true forte. As is her eye for atmosphere and little touches. That attention to detail extended to her runway sunglasses, which boasted teeny-tiny daisy embellishments.